Elanora's Story
by Elanora Chabere
Summary: An original story set in the Wheel of Time world
1. The Beginning

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The oldest child from a poor family of farmers who worked the land for one of the great Houses, she grew up in the fields, working alongside her parents and her numerous brothers and sisters. The family barely managed to scrape by and Ela spent her time working the farm and watching the younger children. There was no time for schooling or anything but work.

The woman groaned as she pushed again. "This child ain't never gonna be born, is it?" she asked the midwife. Kirri Chabere looked up at the woman who was helping deliver her first child and said "It's too big. This babe will kill me, won't it?"

"No," snapped the midwife, "but this might remind you the next time you think that you can catch a man by having his child. Now hush. Save your breath for the next push. Two or three more ought to do." 

Kirri Chabere nodded and gathered in a breath. "Light, I hope this is over soon," she muttered as she felt another pain begin. "I ain't never goin' back to the Keep in Fal Dara to work. And no more chasin' around them men what come there ta fight the trollocs, no matter how pretty they act or talk. Nor what nice clothes they got to wear." Her voice trailed off at a glare and a "Hush!" from the midwife. She continued the thoughts in her mind, "But he _was_ right pretty and all with that coat with the gold embroidery on it. And he spoke fine and treated me good. Then he went to the Blight that day and never…" she cried out as the pain overwhelmed her and she gave a last hard push. 

"A girl!" the midwife said. Just before Kirri slipped off into a faint, she managed to respond "Not a girl, that won't be no help to me in finding a husband!" 

***

"Ela, git in here and mind the little 'uns," Kirri shouted out the door at her oldest daughter, holding her bulging stomach. Elanora rolled her eyes as she finished chasing the chickens out of the garden again and latched the gate as the last hen scurried out , squawking from the well-aimed foot with which Elanora booted it. "Yes, ma, I'll see to 'em" Elanora shouted back.

She scooped the third youngest out of a muddy patch close to the well as she walked across the yard. "Yer a mess, Nonnie. We'll get ya cleaned up here in a minute." She smiled down at the four-year-old as she entered the house. The baby and the toddler younger than Nonnie were on a blanket on the floor of the main room, each moving in opposite directions. She helped the older one stand, making him grab on to her pants leg to steady himself and picked up the baby. She sighed. He was wet – again. She might as well just do them all at once, she decided as she headed for the washtub to fill it for their baths.

The door swung open and Elanora's stepfather appeared. "Girl, what ya doing in here?" he growled. "I told ya at breakfast that ya needed to weed the garden. Now if ya can't follow simple directions, yer gonna find another place to live."

"But Da… " Elanora began, trying to explain that she'd been in the garden when her mother called her back to the house.

"I ain't yer da," he shot a quick look at Kirri before turning back to Elanora. "And my boys get more done than ya do even if they're younger nor you! After all, Bili is only ten with Daneel near seven and you're rising fourteen soon. Ya gotta do more ta pull yer weight round here, girl." He turned once more toward Kirri then looked back at Elanora. "If'n I didn't think ya'd turn out like yer ma, I'd send ya ta work at the Keep in Fal Moran. But ya'd prolly just end up back here with another mouth ta feed. And I ain't havin' none of that. Do ya hear me, girl?" he barked.

Elanora nodded as she watched the glare that flew between her mother and the man her mother had married. "Ya won't never catch me havin' ta marry no one," she assured herself silently. "I ain't never gonna get caught in that trap fer no man or no babe."


	2. Leaving Home

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Ela ran away from home on her fourteenth birthday. That was the day that the boy down the road, a neighbour's son, grabbed her by the arm as she was returning from the market in the village.

Ela held Nonnie's hand in hers as she looked over her shoulder to see what Daneel had stopped to do this time. "Git away from that, Daneel!" she called back to him. "C'mon! Ma will be wantin' these things from the market." She sighed as she watched Daneel poke with the stick again. "Leave that poor critter alone, Dani! That little hoppy frog never done nothin' ta YOU so quit pokin' at it! And git outta the mud!" She rolled her eyes as she looked at him, spattered to his knees. "Go stand in the creek and wash some of that off'n ya," she shouted. Muttering under her breath, she added, "so I ain't gotta wash 'em again when we get home."

Nonnie looked up at Ela and grinned her four-year-old smile. "Dani dirty?" she asked and Ela nodded, giggling down at her half-sister. "Yes, Nonnie, Dani's always dirty. I never saw such a one fer getting' into stuff. Seems like he's always covered in somethin' er other." She thought for a moment and said "Ya know, Nonnie, I think I do as much washin' fer him and the babe with all them wet diapers as I do fer the whole rest of the family put together."

"Dani, git outta the creek NOW!" Ela sighed as she saw Daneel's head suddenly disappear below the edge of the bank, followed by a huge splash. "Flamin'…" her voice trailed off guiltily as she glanced down at Nonnie, thinking better of what she was about to say. Leaning over to pick the little girl up, she said resignedly, "Let's go fish yer brother outta the creek." 

Setting the little girl and the basket of market goods down on the bank as she hitched up her skirt, Ela waded a few steps into the stream and grabbed Daneel by the back of the shirt, dragging him out of the water where he was splashing about. "Look at ya. It were only just over ankle deep, Dani. Ya coulda stood up any time!" Ela pushed him up onto the bank and slid the woven basket onto her arm, then grabbed a hand each of the two younger children. "Now let's get home afore anything else happens!"

As they stepped back onto the road, Ela caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Just down at the path that turned off leading to some few houses, theirs included, stood Treveth. He stood staring down the road at the three of them, watching. Ela drew in a breath and braced herself. She despised Treveth more than any other person she could think of. He was a sneaking, lying cheat as she knew but his father was the overseer for these farms and always managed to keep Treveth out of the trouble that anyone else would surely have been in.

She herded Nonnie and Daneel around Treveth. He stood just where she'd first seen him, partially obstructing the pathway that led to their farms. She was just mentally thanking the Light that he'd not bothered them when she felt his hand groping at her, finally stopping on her wrist. Ela yanked her arm out of his grasp and glared at him. "Let go of me, ya goat-kissin' …" she glanced down at the children. "Just let go of me," she finished.

"Ya won't be saying that in a month, now will ya?" he grinned at her. "Yer mine now. Or will be now that yer da and mine finally agreed ta give me some land that we can farm on our own." Ela gaped at him, her blue-gray eyes horror-stricken as she realized he was serious. To be given away with a piece of land was bad enough but to be given to this hulking brutish sixteen-year old with the reputation for drunken brawling and bullying anyone weaker than him was more than she could stand.

Ela straightened to her full height and spat onto the dusty path at his feet. "Ya won't never have me. I'd go to that place next to th' tavern first where the women take money fer it. I won't never be yers." She ducked the grab he made at her by jumping back away from him but she didn't see the backhanded slap coming, the one that knocked her down to the dust and closed her eye with the bruise it left.

"Ya will and yer gonna pay fer that every day. I ain't never gonna fergit it and you ain't either cause I won't let ya," Treveth answered her, standing over her staring down. "Ya gotta learn that a woman's gotta do what her man tells her. No matter what it is." He leered at Ela. "And yer gonna do everythin' I tell ya or there'll be more a the same. A month and then yer mine. So ya better get useta th' idea." He started to step over her, headed down the path towards his parents' small house. "Git up," he said, turning back and kicking her in the ribs with his dirt-covered heavy boots, "git up. Yer blockin' the path." 


	3. Arrival in Caemlyn

I do not own the rights to The Wheel of Time, even though just a tiny percentage of the profits would be very welcome. Ah, well…

Elanora found the Southlands a new experience. Knowing no one, she started out to make her own way in the world as best she could. She ended up in Caemlyn, looking for work.

The tall man in the torn cloak helped Ela to her feet. She'd been staring around her at the huge number of people in Caemlyn. Though she'd seen other cities on her way south, none of them had nearly the number of people in them as Caemlyn. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't be meanin' ta run inta ya that way." She sketched a little bow to him the way she'd seen her father bow to the House Seat when the man had ridden past their fields. He smiled down at her.

"Well, lad, just be careful. Not everyone would believe that you ran into them by accident. Some might think that you did it deliberately – to rob them. Especially as close to dark as it is." The man waved off Ela's hurried denials. "I know you didn't mean to and that you weren't trying to rob me. Trust me, I'd have known if you were." He grinned wolfishly. "I did enough of it growing up in Lugard to be able to tell."

Ela nodded, still trying to interrupt to say that she'd run into him unintentionally but the tall man continued, "Now, where were you headed? Do you have a place to stay?" Ela shook her head. "Well then, follow me, lad. Malk's always got a place in the back room for someone to sleep for a couple of days. Just until you learn your way about. And don't think that he does it out of the goodness of his heart. You'll earn that bed. He'll have you sweeping, washing dishes, any kind of work that he can think of while he swaps lies with his friends."

A sudden chuckle drew Ela's glance up to the tall man's brown eyes. "And here you don't know me or Malk or even if you can trust us, do you? Well, to make you feel better, Malk's my father. My adopted father. He runs a bar here in Caemlyn when he's got an inclination for it. Me, I'm Janarc. I do… a little of everything. Some trading, some fighting, some doing small jobs for others. But you can ask around. Malk's well known here in Caemlyn. Even the Lion Wardens will tell you that Malk runs a clean business. At least as far as they can tell. If you like, I'll take you to a Warden so that you can ask. There's nearly always one around the central square."

"No, sir, that's aight." Ela couldn't explain why she trusted him. He didn't look like one of the decent folk of the town, not with the ragged cloak and simple clothes that he wore. As a matter of fact, the crooked grin and the tattered clothes made him appear more than somewhat wolfish. Ela could sense that he wasn't an easy man to be around but there was something in his look that made her willing to trust him, if only until he proved her wrong. "I'm right glad of a place ta sleep, sir. But just fer the night. I'll be findin' a job tomorrer so I kin be outta yer way. I ain't takin' no charity. I'll pay yer da back after I start earnin' the money."

Janarc looked down at Ela and grinned again. He reached out and ruffled her short, spiky dark hair which, along with her height of 5' 4" and her slight build, as well as the baggy shirt and pants she wore, enhanced her appearance as a boy. She'd used the disguise on the road and cut her hair even shorter once she'd seen how some men thought a woman traveling on her own was easy prey. "Take what you want and pay for it, that's my motto, lad. I'm glad to see that you intend to pay for what you get," Janarc said as he turned and headed for the southeastern quadrant of the city. As he stretched out his arm, Ela had seen the glint of burnished metal through a tear in the cloak. "So I ain't th'only one who ain't exactly what I look like," Ela thought as she fell into step beside Janarc. 

Turning into the doorway of a shabby building on the road near the eastern wall of the city, Janarc led the way into the bar. He glanced around the room. "Malk's not here now," he said over his shoulder to Ela. Calling over to the woman who was standing behind the bar, he said "Pils, when will Malk be back?" At the woman's shrug and muttered "Light knows but sometime tonight, he said", Janarc waved his hand at Pilana and led Ela through to the back room of the bar. He indicated a cot in the corner and said "Toss your things there and we'll get you some food. Then you can get a good night's sleep, lad before you start looking for a job." Janarc headed back for the common room but stopped suddenly in the doorway. "I've just thought of something, lad. I'm off on a trip to Tear in the morning. Would you like to go with me? I need someone to help with the horses and to run errands. You'll earn your way and a little besides if I'm successful."

Ela nodded. "I can do that, sir. I never been ta Tear though." Janarc waved away the thought dismissively and disappeared into the common room, leaving Ela to stow her few possessions under the cot. Janarc returned several minutes later with a tray. Setting it down, Janarc took the paper and ink off of it and shoved it across the table. "Here lad, there's some supper for you." Ela walked to the table and sat down opposite Janarc, watching him carefully as he reached across to take the pen and began to scrawl a note to Malk. "Now if you need anything, just ask Pilana for it," he said distractedly as he re-read what he'd written. "I'll be out till late. Or maybe early." He grinned across at Ela. "There's a woman that I need to see before I go. She's likely to keep me out all night. But I'll be back in time to get us an early start. Be ready." 

When Malk entered the bar later that night, he stopped in the back room, staring down at the cot. "Hmm, don't remember this one being here when I left," he thought. He glanced around, seeing on the table the folded paper addressed to him in Janarc's sprawling script. Malk read the note and nodded. He picked up the pen and another sheet of paper, taking it with him to the common room to jot down his reply. "If you're taking the young one that you left in the back room with you to Tear tomorrow, I think that you're right. There is quite a lot that one can learn from you. Handling a sword is a good start. You know where I keep some of the training weapons. If you need a place to rest along the way, use my house outside Tear," he scrawled on the page. Malk stared down at the page and nodded to himself. He grinned sardonically at what he'd written, chuckling as he looked down at the letter, "And I thought I raised you better, Janarc. If you can't see the lass under those shapeless clothes she's wearing, you deserve the shock that's coming to you, son."


	4. Riding to Tear

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Elanora's first hunting trip was on a trip to Tear with Janarc. He had business there that he had to accomplish and offered to take Elanora along with him. 

When he finally showed up, looking decidedly tired but grinning all the same, Elanora had Janarc's horse Scoundrel saddled and the horse that Malk had loaned her was packed with provisions. Malk had helped Ela ready the packs, showing her what to pack and how to pack it. As they swung up onto the horses to leave, Ela thought back over the conversation she'd had with Malk.

"I've had years of experience at traveling light and fast. There's things you can get along without, things that can do double duty, things that you HAVE to have. You'll learn it as you go along, la…d." He'd given her a long slow look that Ela tried to return without changing expression but the hard blue eyes bored deep into hers. Ela's eyes were the first to drop as she replied "Yes, sir," so that she didn't see the grin that had passed over Malk's face.

"Janarc's a good man but he tends to react from his ideals. He'd try to tell you that he doesn't have any. But he does. And it's not a weakness, it's a … foible. He'll also expect you to know what he's thinking and to be ready for whatever happens." Malk looked at her, all trace of humour gone from his eyes. "Some of the people he's meeting wouldn't hesitate to stick a dagger in his, or your, back." He hesitated to emphasize his words. "Watch his back for him. Try not to let him lead with his feelings. Can you do that, lass?"

Ela's blue-gray eyes met Malk's icy blue ones. "I'll do my best, sir," she said, just as seriously. "But I ain't got no influence over him. I'm just along to take care of the horses. He coulda hired anyone for this." She raised her eyes to Malk's and said quietly "Are ya gonna tell him about me?"

Malk looked hard at her for a second and replied, "No. He chose you. That means that he's willing to be convinced that he can trust you. So don't make any mistakes that you can't correct. Because if he ever learns not to trust you, you'll never get another chance." Elanora nodded. "Here," Malk said as he handed her a sealed note, "if he stops on the way back from Tear, and he will if I know him, give this to Ossendre. She's the housekeeper for my place near Tear."

"But shouldn't Janarc carry it?" Ela asked. Malk shook his head. "No, he'd forget it or want to read it or lose it in some bar fight. It's better off that you have it. Put it in the saddlebags and remember to give it to her when you arrive. When you arrive now, you hear?" Nodding, Elanora stowed the letter carefully in the pocket of the saddlebag, shrugging a little at Malk's vehemence.

As they rode out the south gate of Caemlyn headed for Tear, Janarc said "Well, lad, I suppose you want to know what we're doing. I've got a few deliveries to make in Tear and some things to bring back. I'll be doing some trading with people I know there. Lad, you'll… errm, what's your name? I can't just keep calling you lad."

Ela paused, remembering Malk's words about trust but unwilling to let go of the secret that she'd held since leaving home. "My name's El, sir," she said. Janarc turned in his saddle, looking back at her. "Well, my name's longer but it's embarrassing. I don't like ta use it. You can just call me El. My ma, she picked it out…."

Janarc chuckled. "One of the privileges of not knowing your mother is that you can't blame her for the name you've got. Alright, El, I won't ask any further. Now when we get to Tear, we'll spend a day showing you around so that you can find your way when I need you to run the errands. Then I'll do the jobs I've come to do and we'll come back to Caemlyn."

The ride from Caemlyn to Tear was a slow easy ride with Janarc teaching Ela how to handle a sword and how to hunt. They were two day's ride south of Glancor when a man stepped into their camp just at dusk. Ela reached for her sword, still close at hand since she had just finished sparring with Janarc. "Put it down, El," Janarc said, "he's a friend. I've been waiting for you to come out of those trees over there for the last hour, Garwin. What kept you so long?"

"Just seeing if you had any abilities as a teacher, Janarc," Garwin growled in his low voice. "Looks like this one can learn even if you _are_ the one showing him how." Garwin turned and looked at Ela. "You need a better blade than that thing that Janarc's got you using. Here." He reached in his pack and handed her a bone-handled blade, superbly balanced and just right for her reach. "I don't have any use for it and you might be able to learn how to fight now that you have a real weapon. Now could you step along and take care of my horse? I'm sure he'd like a brush down while Janarc and I take care of a little business." Ela nodded at the big burly man and slowly slid her eyes to Janarc, seeking his permission. 

At Janarc's nod, Ela bowed to Garwin, murmuring her thanks for the blade and slid it into her belt as she moved away to where Garwin's horse stood with theirs. Within the hour, Garwin and Janarc had finished their talk. Ela resaddled Garwin's horse and held it while he mounted. Garwin leaned over and said in a low rumble, "He's a good teacher. Make him teach you the tricks though. No one ever makes it to old age always fighting by the book." Garwin straightened and growled "Janarc, I expect you not to let this boy lose that blade." Janarc grinned up at Garwin, saying "I'll do my best," as he came to stand next to Ela. As they bedded down on opposite sides of the fire later, Janarc said "You did just fine, El. You waited for me to let you know what to do. And don't feel bad about not noticing Garwin there before he stepped to the fire. There's few men that see him when that old fox doesn't want to be seen. You'll do just fine in Tear, lad." 


End file.
